Waterfall at the Botanical Garden: Updated!: A LEGO® creation by Andrew Mobley : MOCpages.com

Waterfall at the Botanical Garden: Updated!

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A landscape waterfall scene at the botanical gardens

About this creation

Well, after building a bunch of Creator car alternates, I decided to try my first landscape MOC. This one was built from second hand bricks I acquired in a large lot plus a couple trips to the pick a brick wall. I did come up with my own method for doing water (at least I haven't seen this method used in any of the hundreds of landscape MOCS I have looked at). My sweet wife is responsible for improving the bridge, adding all the plants, and posing the minifigs she designed for this scene.

The gardener is always busy making the flowers look perfect!

Cattails growing by the little waterfall make a great place for a frog to hang out.

You're not supposed to pick the flowers at the botanical gardens, but when a girl is this pretty, sometimes you've got to break the rules. . .

Here's my water technique. First I laid down a layer of transparent light and dark blue round 1x1 plates. Then I added a second off-set layer by inserting more round 1x1 plates between the studs of the bottom layer. This allows for round 1x1 plates to completely cover the surface without any visible holes in the spaces between the plates. It also adds a nice rippled and layered effect since the top of the studs of the bottom layer are visible between the studs of the upper layer. The hardest part was inserting the top layer of 1x1 plates between the studs of the bottom layer, as they only fit in that way if they are absolutely perfectly aligned before being pressed into place. I found that it was almost impossible to do this with fingers alone without cursing. Fortunately, I came up with a special tool that makes doing this nearly impossible task very easy. If this MOC gets a lot of interest and likes, and if this truly is a unique new method to portray water, I'll share my "secret" tool with everyone.

EDIT: A tutorial on how to recreate this water technique is posted here!

Thanks for taking the time to look at my first landscape scene, and please take a moment to rate this MOC or leave a comment with constructive feedback!

Comments

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I made it

Andrew Mobley

February 7, 2012

Quoting LB. 12 Beautiful and that water looks great.

Thanks! For a recent display at a LEGO convention, my wife completely re-worked all of the flowers, trees, and plants. I'll have to post a pic of it now as it is even nicer.

I like it

Calvin Russ

February 7, 2012

Nice water formation!

I like it

LB. 12

February 7, 2012

Beautiful and that water looks great.

I like it

Severus A

November 12, 2011

Beautiful!

I like it

StoveTop Creator

October 13, 2011

Very restful, Japanese Garden feel. And, of course that H20 technique! I almost bid on a mess of those blue rd plates on eBay. Now I wish I had! :)

I like it

Master Shifu Leo J

October 4, 2011

Beautiful collab between you and the missus! The MOC is pleasing to the eyes! So serene!

I like it

MortalSwordsman .

October 3, 2011

Hi Andrew. I am sorry I missed this. What a beautiful scene. The water is stunning, i have not seen this technique before, I also like the rapids. The flowers and bridge are excellent too. What fun building with your wife :).

I made it

Andrew Mobley

October 3, 2011

Thanks Gabor! I'll reveal my secret insertion tool once I get 20 likes or a total of 5 requests to give up my new technique. But if that doesn't happen, I'll still tell you since you are one of my favorites :)

I like it

Gabor Horvath

October 3, 2011

Hi! I increase the amount of likes, because I'm curious, what is your secret tool :). This garden is amazing. The water(fall), the bridge, the other small details are superb!

I like it

Darth Lowe (About to create a second account)

October 2, 2011

Great job, looks brilliant especially the waterfall :D

I made it

Andrew Mobley

October 1, 2011

Quoting Ru Corder The waterfall turned out very nicely.

Thanks. The only small trans clear pieces I had were those cheese slopes I got from the pick a brick wall, but they worked out great for a little waterfall like this. We will probably be adding a LOT more plants in the next couple of days and I'll update with new photos once that happens. Our bricklink order contains a lot of small detail pieces that will make some areas less boring and square . . . .